Game Developer Tycoon

[JetsIn06]

Just made 13M before leaving the garage. Woot!

But then I ran into some trouble. Moved into the office and started researching tons of new stuff to make a new engine, but I too had trouble getting enough research points to get the next graphics feature. So, to combat that, I pumped out like 6 straight sequels. First 3 did well, then 3 flops. Yikes.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by Solecismic

I'm in year 16 and, while I've never had $1 million in the bank or even one employee, I've managed to avoid bankruptcy.

16 years of PC based, text only sports simulations?

[Shkspr]

Originally Posted by Solecismic

I'm in year 16 and, while I've never had $1 million in the bank or even one employee, I've managed to avoid bankruptcy.

On the other hand, you're in year 16 and while you've managed to avoid bankruptcy, you've never had $1 million in the bank or even one employee.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by Solecismic

I'm in year 16 and, while I've never had $1 million in the bank or even one employee, I've managed to avoid bankruptcy.

How well is Timber and Stone working out for you?

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Big Fo

Just had my first game to sell over five million copies.

I wish you could make multiplatform games and have two different teams working on a game at once.

Research points are hard to come by. Then when you finally get to research enough advancements to make a new game engine worthwhile, you generate so many more research points that you would have loved to use on things to include in that new engine.

Yeah, that's on my wishlist.

I also wish it were possible to have separate teams working on separate games. Especially early in the game when development is relatively cheap. If you make it to an office while you're still in the NES era and development isn't super-expensive, it should totally be possible to, with a small staff, be working on two different NES games at a time.

I wish it were possible to add peripheral support to an existing engine without having to create a whole new one from scratch.

I wish sequels didn't happen so 'late' in the research lifecycle. I'd imagine for a small developer, the key is to find a niche and carve the hell out of it before you start branching out, but this game does it backwards. Make a fantasy RPG, make a racing simulation, go for a military shooter...it gets you into this jack-of-all-trades situation that isn't really realistic for a small developer.

[SirFozzie]

Here's a suggestion, if you need research points, and don't mind the hit to finances

Take contract work, even if you don't think you'll make the goal. That's one of the things that generates Research Points.

[Solecismic]

Originally Posted by Matthean

How well is Timber and Stone working out for you?

Hey, no telling my secrets about creating custom graphics.

[JetsIn06]

Just hit $1B in the bank.

[Tasan]

Originally Posted by Solecismic

I'm in year 16 and, while I've never had $1 million in the bank or even one employee, I've managed to avoid bankruptcy.

This is possibly the best line ever posted on this board, ever.

[JetsIn06]

I've got $26 Billion in the bank, and I've done everything there is to do in the game.

Time to start over, I guess?

[MrBug708]

Didnt hit custom consoles sadly. Did finish with 306 in the bank, which is pretty great since I was struggling around year 10 without a future

[Peregrine]

Loving this game - really hard to stop playing it.

[JetsIn06]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

Loving this game - really hard to stop playing it.

Seriously, it's so addicting. My previous statement should be amended by mentioning that I did all of that after the game "ended." So I'll try to beat my score I guess.

[Peregrine]

I have gone bankrupt a couple of times, but also scored one huge hit that made me 3-4 million at a pop. Unfortunately it's been hard to replicate that success so far.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

I have gone bankrupt a couple of times, but also scored one huge hit that made me 3-4 million at a pop. Unfortunately it's been hard to replicate that success so far.

One thing I'm noticing is that the review scores of a game seem to be tied to your proficiency with the graphics engine. So early on, when you first start using 2D graphics, the games uniformly suck until about your 3rd or 4th game, when you start getting scores in the 6's and 7's.

What that seems to mean is that when you do a new engine with a different type of graphics, your scores go back to suck for a while until you hit level 2 or 3 with those graphics.

[MrBug708]

I'm on game #104 and I swear it's probably the 10th game I've had where it was titled Game #XX

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by JetsIn06

I've got $26 Billion in the bank, and I've done everything there is to do in the game.

Time to start over, I guess?

Well aren't you special.

[Peregrine]

I assumed 3D graphics would be "better" than 2D, but at least at V1, they cost a lot less - not sure if I should go with the higher technology or the good old 2D V3 I have been using.

[Fidatelo]

The move to 3D precipitated my bankruptcy, as far as I can tell. I produced a string of hits using 2D technology, moved to 3D and had a bunch of flops until eventually I went under. Next playthrough I think I will stick with 2D until I can research a higher level of 3D (v2 I assume). That sort of goes with my own feelings about games from that period anyways; the first generation of 3D games were, with a few exceptions, terrible.

[JPhillips]

I think you have to get to a certain level of 3D proficiency before you unlock v2 or v3. You will always have to start with v1 3D games.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

I assumed 3D graphics would be "better" than 2D, but at least at V1, they cost a lot less - not sure if I should go with the higher technology or the good old 2D V3 I have been using.

I think there is definite 'room' for improvement with regards to feedback on exactly what you get from each engine and situation - for instance if it indicated "Graphics V1 - Similar to Doom PC" and a little screenshot of an equivalent style of graphics then it'd mean more to people, similarly it'd be nice if you could see the 'Top 10 charts' at any point so you could get a vibe for 'where' your games are in relation to others in the charts in terms of quality.

(it'd also allow for third-party add-ons to put in the 'real' games charts from history as well which would be kinda neat .... yeah I know I'm a hardcore sim geek and this sort of thing isn't 'really' important - its still a good game .... but ...)

[JetsIn06]

I was humbled in my second attempt at becoming a billionaire. Researched MMO's way faster and thought that would send me sky high before the end of the game, but it completely flopped and I lost $66M.

What's funny is, I fired 4 employees, so it was me and two other people. We made a baseball game and it has something like $46M in sales and it got us out of the red just in time. But I had to lay off the other employees to avoid hitting the $-2M mark. So now I'm sitting on a bunch of cash with no employees. Not sure where to go next. Game is over, so I'm considering just starting over, but it'd be interesting to see where I go from here.

[Izulde]

I release nothing but 3D games and have for a long time.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

The move to 3D precipitated my bankruptcy, as far as I can tell. I produced a string of hits using 2D technology, moved to 3D and had a bunch of flops until eventually I went under. Next playthrough I think I will stick with 2D until I can research a higher level of 3D (v2 I assume). That sort of goes with my own feelings about games from that period anyways; the first generation of 3D games were, with a few exceptions, terrible.

It's less about the quality of the 3D tech and more about your proficiency with it.

Look at the beginning of the game. Your early 2D games will be terrible until you gain a level or two in 2Dv1, at which point you'll start to be able to churn out 6-7 rated games. Same thing with 3D. No matter the generation of 3D tech, unless you have a nice big staff to work with, if you're only just starting out with it, your game will almost certainly flop until you have a few 3D games under your belt.

[Klinglerware]

Originally Posted by JetsIn06

I was humbled in my second attempt at becoming a billionaire. Researched MMO's way faster and thought that would send me sky high before the end of the game, but it completely flopped and I lost $66M.

Hey, isn't that "The Curt Schilling Story"?

[JetsIn06]

Originally Posted by Klinglerware

Hey, isn't that "The Curt Schilling Story"?

Pretty close!

[SportsDino]

Speaking of looks like doom, if you name a scifi sshooter Doom you may get some decent sales...

I do think nthe game is more entertaining when you feel the feedback, I think the devs posted some basics on their algorithm (or someone researched it) and I have been more consistent on the sliders and appreciate the game a little more. I think the next level of awesome is letting people invest money and people on features of the games and giving direct feedback in game of features link to ratings or sales.

[Blackadar]

I played this for a bit over the evening. It's cute, but it's less-than-impressive after a couple of hours. There's simply not enough feedback to the player to determine why a game doesn't sell or review well. It's all about "guess the algorithm", which doesn't make for a good game. Nor do the events seem to be randomized in any way, so each game plays out very similarly to the one before it.

I think this is one of those games that seems pretty neat for about two hours, then begins to collapse under its own weight. I'm getting indirect confirmation about that one this and other forums - there was a flurry of activity for about 3 or 4 days and then nothing...no one talks about it.

Certainly not a bad little plaything, but it just kind of falls apart after a while.

[Young Drachma]

It's a bit too tedious and somewhat of a clickfest. We like clickfests in these parts, but I've just found whenever I wanted to dive back in and play a few hours that it goes too slowly and that damn tutorial won't go the fuck away until after you've played through once and lost, which really slows things down too.

Not bad for $8, but I do think the warts around it make it hard to stay interested, but given they adapted it from a mobile game I guess not easy to expect much more.

[Young Drachma]

Save game editor released: Save Game Editor - Greenheart Games Forum

[mckerney]

Game Dev Tycoon made it through Stream Greenlight.

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by mckerney

Game Dev Tycoon made it through Stream Greenlight.

I'm glad for them, but wow did the buzz fall away on this one quickly. The gaming forums I visit went from "really neat" to no posts at all overnight.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Blackadar

I'm glad for them, but wow did the buzz fall away on this one quickly. The gaming forums I visit went from "really neat" to no posts at all overnight.

I watched TBs video on it last night and couldn't agree more with his take on it. It's fun to play because of the theme but ultimately it fails as a game because there's no useful feedback as to why a particular game failed or succeeded. I played for several hours but gave up on it when how well my games sold and reviewed seemed mostly random to me and left me with no clue what I should change or try to repeat.

[Young Drachma]

Game Dev Tycoon 1.3.9 rolling out - Greenheart Games Forum

v. 1.39 released a few weeks ago.

[Marmel]

My bad...

[Young Drachma]

Going to Steam tomorrow. Been updated too.

Game Dev Tycoon is coming to Steam on August 29th | Greenheart GamesGreenheart Games

[SirFozzie]

They've been sending out steam keys to those who purchased it previously

[SackAttack]

Yeah, I got a Steam key earlier today.

[Doug5984]

Late to this party- but really enjoying this game as a way to kill a couple hours while mindless TV is on in the background

[Carman Bulldog]

Now out on iOS (and coming to Android in January). Includes a few updates to the story mode as well as additional game topics and an optional piracy mode. I have not played it since prior to the first major Steam update but I definitely recommend people check it out.